Loader, excavator, drag line buckets and shovels, truck and scraper beds, and similar structures of earth excavating and earth moving equipment are subject to wear from engagement with dirt, sand, rocks and other abrasive materials. It has been common practice to "tile" such structures with replaceable wear runners to protect the structure from wear due to contact with such abrasive materials. Examples of prior wear runners are depicted in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,995,176 issued Feb. 26, 1991 and 5,005,304 issued Apr. 9, 1991 both to Terry L. Briscoe. Some type of mechanical lock is typically used to retain the replaceable cover of the wear runner onto the mounting base. One type of mechanical lock that may be used is disclosed in U. S. Pat. No. 5,088,214 issued Feb. 18, 1992 to Larren F. Jones. Such lock, however, uses a rubber latch member, which may tear, fatigue or otherwise deteriorate in use. Any such failure would permit the loss of the wear cover. It is also desirable for wear covers to be reversible and easily removable without the use of special tools to facilitate the ease of replacement, the moving around and/or reversal of the wear covers in the field as needed to obtain the greatest wear life from such covers.
The present invention is directed to providing an easily replaceable wear runner without the shortcomings of the prior attempts at securing the wear cover to the mounting base.